The present invention relates to a device for making individual slices of cake or quick bread and the slices of cake or quick bread.
Baked goods such as quick breads and cakes have typically been baked as a loaf in a loaf pan or a sheet in a sheet pan. The quick breads and cakes have been served by slicing the loaves or sheets in sizes suitable for individual servings. As anyone can attest to, however, loaf symmetry and sheet symmetry are such that the loaf and sheet slices are of non-uniform shape and consistency.
Under the best of conditions, the loaf has a baked convex top surface. When the loaf is sliced, the slices near the ends of the loaf are smaller in height and width than slices closer to the center of the loaf. The end slices, called "heels" have the smallest height. The end slices also have the toughest texture. Unlike the interior slices, the end slices have one side that is baked to a brown crust.
If the loaf slices are served in an establishment such as a restaurant, the end slices must be discarded because they do not conform to quality control requirements that the restaurant may have. These discarded slices are wasteful and add a significant cost to businesses such as restaurants and food manufacturers.
The Retzbach patent, U.S. Pat. No. 1,411,223 describes a box that is provided with a liner formed of a single sheet of paper. The lined box is filled with a pastry dough. The filled, lined box is placed in an oven to bake the dough. Because of the paper lining in the box, the product is baked uniformly throughout while only the top is browned.
The Marceno patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,034 describes a baking pan having an insert that divides the pan into discrete baking compartments. The baking compartments include a plurality of opposing and intersecting wall members. The insert is used to make cupcakes.
The Manizza patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,276 describes a combined baking and display tray for presenting shaped bakery products. The tray is triangular and is provided with a divider that divides the tray into crescent shaped compartments for retaining dough in an individual curved crescent shape during baking.
The Sarnoff et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,768 describes a circular microwavable chip maker having a row of spacers defining slots between each adjacent pair of spacers. Thin food items are retained in the slots in a spaced array to facilitate cooking in a microwave oven.